This was really quite a good thriller, a debut novel done very well. I had a few problems with it along the way, but overall it was definitely worth reading, almost a page-turner, with some intriguing characters.

Fun in places, but ultimately disappointing. It was noticeably tamer than the previous version - although in some senses that was a good thing! There was a lot less story, with the film sailing on knowledge of the characters from the first movie, and not bothering to expand on them at all. I liked that the daughter got to be a bit kick-ass rather than the one being abducted, but in the end, it was just forgettable.

I heard about a game you can play within your browser, in which you begin to type in the URL bar, and see what site comes up as the first suggested for each letter of the alphabet. I thought I'd give it a spin and see what mine were. In Chrome, it seems to be a cross between most visited and latest viewed as well. amazon.co.uk bbc.co.uk/iplayer caterhamf1.com dooce.com (bit …

Despite being a short month, it's been a busy few weeks in Ambridge, with lots of storylines thrown into the melting pot. Here are my scatter-brained thoughts on February with The Archers. Pip did overdo a bit going to stay at Rickyard Cottage whens he was mad at her parents. It's quite fun seeing Josh become the responsible one as Pip gradually loses every ounce of respect she ever earned …

January ended with a disappointing 14km deficit from the target, thanks to some days inside due to snow and illness. I was determined to catch up a bit in February (there's nothing like a target on a graph to be motivational!) and started off with an ill-advised 9k. I was aiming for 10 and had to give up before I got there, and then felt like I'd overdone it for …

It's fair to say that the movie isn't really aging well, and there are bits of it that are far more ridiculous than I remember. That still doesn't diminish my love for it though, even if I have to hide behind the sofa for THAT bit. All those one-liners amidst the great action, fab supporting characters like the janitor and the comms guy, it's just a fun way to spend a couple of hours.

Another brilliant advert has caught my attention, I'm not sure how old this is, but I've only just seen it and I love it. I would say, with this and the EDF energy thing, that I like adverts in which odd things dance to old music. More of this, please.

I've always been a bit intrigued by the army - not for military or war reasons, but more for the self-contained way of life. Along with bunkers and islands, the ghost villages of Salisbury and the fenced in housing estates of Tidworth have always captured my attention. Plus, tanks are cool.

You go into the book knowing exactly what you're getting, within the first few paragraphs you know there are a family of five sisters who all kill themselves. The odd style of narration (third person plural) gives it an inclusive edge, and allows for the story to cover all kinds of things that just one person wouldn't know. Presenting the evidence of the Lisbon girls' short lives and abrupt deaths, the story meanders to its heartbreaking conclusion in a compelling and tasteful way.

Disappointingly, I wrote this post last month and - thanks to having to get the screen captures off the iPad and general forgetfulness - have only just remembered it was tucked away in my drafts. It is still interesting though, so let's just wind back and pretend it's the 27th January rather than February. It's not every day that you see a tweet from your significant other waxing lyrical about …

This year, the Pocket F1 Handbook is spreading its wings and launching on more than just Amazon reading apps and devices. The Guide to the 2013 F1 Season is now available on the Apple iBookstore, making it available to an iDevice near you. If you prefer your books to have a more standard viewing experience, and the ability to update faster, the iBookstore option may be the one for you. …

I've been busy compiling my own A-Z of attractions in the UK, something that came to a bit of an abrupt halt last year due to one thing and another, but is high on my priorities to complete. What I hadn't realised is that the Royal Mail have already done it, releasing a set of stamps to celebrate the UK - 26 different stamps with a highlight of the British …

After watching Skyfall, we browsed through some of the upcoming trailers on the Apple TV, and came across Oblivion, the new Tom Cruise movie. Good grief, that man works hard! Oblivion There's another, earlier, trailer here that tells a bit more of the story. It looks interesting enough, although the amount of CGI it's going to have worries me a little bit.

I've got mixed feelings about this one. The amount of research that has gone into this shines through from the very start, and it becomes obvious quite quickly that this is a fiction story layered on top of what really should have been a non-fiction piece about the island of St Kilda.

We watched the required (by our own rules) thirty minutes of this, and it was beautifully shot and looked like it might be good. Unfortunately, I couldn't understand a word anyone was saying, so had no idea what was going on. It was all a bit too confusing, and although I thought LaBeouf was actually quite good, I didn't really have any desire to sit through another hour of it.

I met up with my parents this past weekend, and we went for a walk around the National Trust estate at Kingston Lacy. The place wasn't fully open yet, still hunkered down and working through the cold weather, but they were celebrating the carpets of snowdrops that were across some of the gardens. We thought we'd brave the freezing conditions (there were literal snow drops falling at times) to have …

Loved it! All the subtle James Bond references, all the 50th anniversary nods, they were all brilliant. The story itself was a heck of a lot easier to follow than those in previous instances, and it was great to see a bit more character out of, well, everyone. I didn't notice that it was so long, the time seemed to fly by. I almost felt as though this is the James Bond we should have had straight away from Craig, it was a bit less camp than Brosnan but just as cheesy at times. However, I can see that they needed some serious ones to go first to set the character on his own path. Loved Ben Whishaw, as well.

It's been a while since I read the previous book in this young adult time travelling extravaganza, so I was worried I wouldn't remember anything that had happened before. Thankfully, there are plenty of nudges and reminders throughout the book - it's a complex business this time travel stuff, we need to relive odd bits and pieces here and there to keep track!

I spotted this crazy but brilliant gadget stand that is way over-funded on Kickstarter, and it is such a great idea. Taking inspiration from the animal kingdom, the Monkey Kit stand is actually billed as a "tablet positioning system" but it can cling on to plenty of different types of gadget, and then can curl around things or prop itself up in the strangest of places. I particularly like the …

I'm a big fan of Tom Merritt's podcasting work, particularly as part of the dream team with Molly Wood, but also on the TWiT network. He's professional, super smart and explains tech things without being patronising. Yay! So, I was intrigued by the book, clearly born from a simple love of all things tech. I recall a Tech History Today podcast that I lost track of, but the book no doubt came from there.

This week only one trailer crossed my path and it was for Emperor. Unfortunately, I just can't get past the fact that this is Jack! Particularly in the opening scene where it is Jack, in a plane, heading towards an island! LOST really has ruined my life. Emperor

Mr C showed me this Tumblr site a good few weeks ago now, and I was instantly in love. In a nutshell, the Movie Barcodes are all the frames of a movie squidged up to make a colourful (or not so colourful) barcode style image. In some cases, they're offered as prints, and I am sorely tempted to snap some up. Some of them are better than others, naturally, and …

Shakespeare has always been a bit of an enigma to me. Like most Shakespeare heathens, I don't mind the odd Romeo and Juliet here and there, and comparing people to a summer's day is fun, but mostly it's just too much work. I wanted to read this because it seemed like a nice, friendly introduction to Shakespeare, not taking itself too seriously, and thus I could see if I was missing out on anything good.

Overall, I really enjoyed it. Lens flare aside, it was beautiful to look at, arty but not overly so. The acting was great, dialogue strong, and the concept a great one. I've seen heaps of complaints about plot holes and paradoxes, but mostly I can put those aside and enjoy the story.

In all honesty, I wasn't that bothered about reading past the third book in this series. I had bought the full trilogy of five, however, and so for completeness sake, I wanted to keep on going. This fourth book is a bit different to the previous outings, with a lot of the story taking place on earth and a lot of it between human beings.

Call me a fool, but I hadn't realised the Wombles were in a book before they were on television. I've enjoyed their programme and I know of some of their ways, I know they wish me a Wombling Merry Christmas but when I saw there was a book and did a bit of investigation, I realised I didn't know very much about the Wombles at all!

My knowledge of the Thirty-Nine Steps extends really just as far as that image of a man in a suit being chased by a bi-plane. As part of my extended reading list, I picked this one up and was intrigued to see that it was just a short little spy movie, of such popular acclaim. Having read it, I can see why.

As you very well know, we recently got hooked on The Big Bang Theory. One of the very first things that caught our attention, and made us realise this could be a show we can get on board with, was Sheldon's view on giving gifts. It's exactly the same as ours, and although I've tried to explain it on many an occasion, I've never quite had his eloquence. Penny: Uh, …

It's catch up time on the whole trailer front, as I've been seeing them pass me by but not quite finding time to post them. First up, The Lone Ranger with Johnny Depp. It's fun to see Depp try new characters, but I'm not at all convinced by this one. I don't know the original Lone Ranger particularly well, so curious what fans think of this remake. The Lone Ranger …

What a wonderful range and variety of stories are contained within the official world of Sherlock Holmes. I've read a bit of Holmes here and there before but now an awful lot of what happened on screen makes sense! Contained within this complete works are the four books and 50+ stories that make up a complete chronology of Holmes and Watson's adventures in crime.

When I last properly baked, I made chocolate butterfly cupcakes, that were very delicious. Pondering what to do with the multitude of cake cases I was left with, I received a suggestion from Lou that I subsequently promised to attempt. The conversation went along these lines, paraphrased, naturally: Lou - Make panda cupcakes! Me - WHA? Lou - They're easy, chocolate buttons, dash of icing, no probs. Me - Hmm, …

Formula One begins a brand new season, with a lot to live up to. The action in 2012 surprised, delighted and thrilled fans with a host of different winners, a successful return to the United States and a championship fight that went right down to the wire. With Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel securing their third driver and constructor championships in a row, the challenge of trying to beat them …

If you pay any sort of attention to the goings on at Netflix, you can't fail to have missed the introduction of their new original series House of Cards. It stars Kevin Spacey and Kate Mara and follows the inner workings of politics, newspapers, that kind of thing. We're only three episodes in, so I thought I would just make some notes on the findings so far. 1) Mr C …

I liked this one but it was quite hard going. A bit complicated in places, and I think the 'natural dialogue' thing that is such a phenomenon these days was overdone. The narration was inspired and there were some amusing moments that made it very entertaining. Both Robert and Val were excellent, so, overall, a thumbs up.

Somehow, I'm heading into my fourth year of writing these monthly recaps. I still don't know quite why I do it, but hey, it's fun for me! It's also interesting to look back and see where we were this time three years ago, when I began. January 2010: Helen was fussing over pregnant Annette, Brenda couldn't find a job to save her life, and Ruth was jumping down Pip's throat. …

This year, I set myself a Runkeeper goal of completing 500 kilometres in twelve months. It's a crazy goal, but in 2012, I managed almost 450km, so it should only take a bit more of a push to be able to achieve this. It's one of those that is within my sights but is still going to be a bit tricky. Of course, if January is anything to go by, …

My obsession with weekly baking has faded slightly, but I'm still keen on getting things in the oven and seeing what happens. I'm too much of a coward to dive straight into making croissants by hand, but they're a popular foodstuff in this house, so I was intrigued when I saw an odd little can from Jus-Rol, the incredible ready-made pastry people. Turns out, it was a roll of dough …

Bit disappointing as it turns out. It was a reasonable watch, entertaining enough, but Jonah has been better in other things. They made good use of that improvisational feel but at the same time, it felt like they were being crude just for the sake of it. Ayoade was good, I'd like to see him in more stuff. I felt this was very much like Tower Heist - good enough but not special.

It was definitely better than the third, it really seemed to go back to the roots of the first one. There were some chases on and off land, various parties on a quest for something and the big showdown at the end. The mermaid thing was interesting, although it got a bit fanciful in places (can I really criticise THIS franchise for being fanciful? I don't know). Better, mostly quite unnecessary  but it's always fun to see a bit more Keith Richards.

Immediate reaction was: Well, that was kinda fun but the plot is absolutely incomprehensible. If there was a plot, I couldn't follow it at all, and it was really only enjoyable because of the characters that we have grown to know so well. And then, a day or two later, Mr C and I were talking about the film and couldn't remember it at all. Individual scenes, of course, but what was it actually all about?

I love reading about people taking on crazy challenges, and this - to live a year in the life of an 1800s cottager - was just the kind of thing I enjoy. The book is split into chapters that introduce the concept and the reasoning behind the challenge, then wander through each month of the year, before finishing up with lessons learned. It's a gentle read, nice enough but it didn't quite grab me as I'd hoped.

To my surprise, I quite enjoyed this book. I've not seen the TV show, but I know of it, and knew what to expect when picking it up. I'm usually more of a fan of the fast-paced action thriller, but actually it was quite nice to read something a bit more laid back and relaxed - if such a thing can be said of a murder mystery style book.

I quite enjoyed this part travel guide/part humourous memoir/part fictionalised version of events as three men quite literally get in a boat. Three men and a dog, in true Famous Five style, so that when they were first introduced I couldn't work out why there were four names being bandied about.

This is another of a growing list of 'occupational memoirs' that I've been enjoying over the last few years. Tales from people in interesting jobs - most notably the ambulance service, and hospitals. This time it's Lysa, who trained as a nurse but craved the excitement of the unknown and retrained as a paramedic.

The amazing thing about the internet is that you can research almost anything and get an answer within a few seconds. There is plenty of questionable information out there, but if you use a sensible head and double check your sources and facts, you're likely to do well. The difficult thing about the internet is that you can do almost anything when you're trying to research something. News, video, music, …

This was an intriguing one, like nothing I have really read before, although it occasionally reminded me of the two lead characters in Of Mice and Men. Following two brothers as they go on a job for their boss - a job that involves tracking a thief and dispensing with 1800s style justice.

People have told us to watch The Big Bang Theory over and over again. The Sidepodcast comments have been littered with references and quotes for years, and all of them have gone over our heads. iTunes gave away the first episode for free, we downloaded it, and still didn't manage to watch. It wasn't a stubborn reluctance, more that we just never got round to it. Now, of course, we …

It's a bit on the late side, as the original Killing trilogy came to an end on UK screens before Christmas, but after much thought it feels only fair to review the final series as I have the first (here and here) and second (here and here). I was excited to see how Lund was going to make her probably-not-graceful exit from our lives, and very keen to see what …

This week, I passed the Baking recipe app to Mr C and asked him to pick something he might like. The app is full of photographs, so it makes choosing what you want both a) easier because they are some fantastic photos and b) harder because you want to try a little bit of everything. He opted for the Chocolate Butterfly Cupcakes, which I thought looked complicated but weren't once …

I didn't realise this was a book of short stories until the first one came to an abrupt end. Unfortunately, the first one was the best one, and I spent most of the rest of the book wishing that it could have continued, so that we could find out what happened with the grandmother and the missing boyfriend and the magic handbag.